More Willie Hortonization of Obama from McCain surrogates

Someone who “used cocaine.” “A guy of the street.” That’s how McCain co-chair and early endorser Oklahoma Gov. Tom Keating said Senator Barack Obama should describe himself as a way to “be honest” with voters. He was just about to launch into a Rev. Wright riff Thursday, but his radio host Dennis Miller said they had to go to commercial.

What’s all this mean? Let’s ask James Taylor, the University of San Francisco associate professor of political science. He’ll help us decode the Keating Two:

“A guy of the street.” “This is some sort of reference to ghetto culture, black America,” Taylor said.

“Used cocaine.” Obama admitted this in his memoir, so why bring it up here? “It’s amazing how people want to have it both ways with Obama,” Taylor said. “They say he’s both this elite, Harvard-educated arugula-eater — and he’s some crackhead thug on the street.”

“This is happening because McCain is down in the polls. So (his supporters) are going to call him the n-word without saying it,” Taylor said.

Taylor said “black Americans are watching this moment right now. If these attacks are perceived to be responsible for some harm coming to Obama or that he were to lose the election after being so far up in the polls, there will be some serious reaction in this country,” Taylor said. “There will be a quitting of America by some African Americans. I don’t know if there will be violence, but there will be a tremendous amount of disappointment.”

Here’s the quote and what follows below is a link to the audio:

Keating said Obama “ought to admit, “you know, I’ve got to be honest with you. I was a guy of the street. I was way to the left. I used cocaine. I voted liberally, but I’m back at the center.” I mean, I understand the big picture of America. But he hasn’t done that…”